


Door Number Three

by ShaeTiann



Series: Between Worlds [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, Time Travel Fix-It, Unbeta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25275391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShaeTiann/pseuds/ShaeTiann
Summary: The World Between Worlds offers many different paths, and many opportunities for change.Ahsoka chooses a different one.
Series: Between Worlds [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831423
Comments: 28
Kudos: 367





	Door Number Three

**Author's Note:**

> I really love how there's an increasing number of Jaster Lives fics. The GFFA needs more Good Parent figures.
> 
> This exists because people on my discord server are evil enablers

Ashoka watched Ezra disappear into his portal. He would be safe, and if she waited a few minutes, she could probably slip back through her own portal onto Malachor without running into Vader--

The thought of Vader made her heart clench. Oh, she'd known Anakin had survived. She'd known, could feel it, the tattered thread of their bond had never truly broken, merely gone silent. But what Anakin had become….

She couldn't. Couldn't leave him to suffer like that. Couldn't leave the galaxy to smother in Palpatine's Darkness. 

Ahsoka looked around, the bizarre sourceless light making everything look false and flat. She stood at a crossroads in time and space. Portals opened onto different turning points in history, important events that had the potential to change… _everything._ Ezra had desperately wanted to save Kanan, a vital, personal turning point that would have cost his own life. Ahsoka could appreciate the desire to save what she loved, even if it came at great personal cost. 

Time travel was a tricky business -- the odds of messing up one's own past and erasing one's present actions were so very, frighteningly high. If she rescued Anakin from slavery as a child, the inciting events that set her to do so would never exist, and she would never rescue him from slavery. There was a reason the symbol for infinity was a double-loop rather than singular, after all.

But what were the _other_ options?

Overhead, a soft, burring _coo_ caught her attention; Ahsoka caught sight once again of that pale green convor, perched on top of the portal gate. The bird tilted its head at her and its eyes seemed to glow with reflected light for a moment before it lifted off and fluttered past.

She should really go back to Malachor. But…

_But what were the other options?_

The convor trilled again, and Ahsoka turned her back on the gate. Maybe… maybe there was another way.

* * *

Ahsoka hurried through the trench carved through the earth, tucked low and angling towards the sound of blaster-fire. The gate the convor had led her through had opened onto a battlefield, and not a new one. The ground was pocked with shell-holes, the trenches old enough for the dirt walls to erode in the weather, half-dried mud spattering up her legs as she ran. She hadn't stumbled across any bodies yet, but it was only a matter of time.

She practically tripped over the first one -- they were so coated in dirt, she'd mistaken them for a rock initially. Whoever they were, they wore Mandalorian armour, the jetpack burst open and still smoking from an external hit, and Ahsoka grimaced. Mandalorians and Jedi had a rocky history. Maybe she could fix that here, but that would mean surviving long enough to find the Mand'alor, whoever they were at this time in this place. 

She tucked her sabers into the sides of her boots, where they might be mistaken for knives at a glance, and searched the fallen warrior for weapons with a whispered apology. Two blasters, a belt of power packs, and three grenades heavier, Ahsoka charged forward; the Force was twisting with a sense of urgency. Whatever she could do here, her time was running out.

Angry voices came from ahead of her, and Ahsoka took a chance, poking her head over the rim of the trench. An armoured crawler perched up the hill, a human man in Mandalorian armour leaning out the side hatch while a squad of armed aliens drew closer; at the base of the hill were two people in beskar'gam, covered in mud.

The convor soared past Ahsoka's head and up, drawing her attention to the symbol painted on the side of the crawler.

 _Death Watch._ Snarling, Ahsoka pulled two of her borrowed grenades and armed them. Whatever was going on here, Death Watch was going to be the enemy. Drawing hard on the Force to guide her throw and aim, she hucked both charges over the Mandalorians' heads into the crawler just as the man leaning out fired a rocket at the two Mando'adë below. 

The blast jarred the man out of the crawler, his shot flying wide. One of the Mando'adë dodged it; the other launched themself skyward--

And then started firing down at the Mandalorian on the ground. Ahsoka didn't pause to think, throwing herself in between them, lightsabers out and white blades blocking shots from above. 

The Force flared in warning and Ahsoka changed her angle of defense as a single shot screeched past from behind her; it struck the airborne Mandalorian's jetpack and something exploded, sending him plummeting from the air.

The Mandalorian on the ground at her feet rasped, _"Ibac'meg gan'tayl, gar dar'manda hutuun. Vaii Vizsla?" 1 _

_Of course_ it would be a Vizsla in charge of a Death Watch force, although the man's long dark hair suggested he wasn't Pre; maybe an ancestor? Ahsoka took a moment to get her bearings -- the alien army seemed to have fled when her grenades turned the crawler into a shattered husk -- and put her lightsabers away in her boots. It took her a moment to remember the Mando'a Rex and Fives had taught her. _"Jaon'gir." 2 _ The man was moving, but weakly, and his sense in the Force suggested he'd taken more damage from the grenades than his armour could compensate for. Ahsoka helped the Mandalorian up -- they'd taken a shot in the leg from the traitor, and willingly wrapped an arm around her shoulders for support.

 _"Ni kyr'ibic." 3 _ The Mandalorian urged her over to Vizsla, aimed their blaster at the man's head, and didn't stop firing until there was nothing left. Then they sagged against her, rage spent. _"Tion gar gai?" 4 _ The helmet tilted to fully assess her. "And what's a _jetii_ doing out here?"

 _"Ner gai Ashla._ And," she switched to Basic the same way the Mandalorian had, "the Force led me here."

"The Force, huh?" They glanced past her. "The name's Jaster. Is your Force going to stop me from finishing that traitor off?"

That was rocky territory -- a Jedi would have said no. But Ahsoka was no Jedi, and if she wanted the chance to talk to their Mand'alor, she'd have to let them make their own decisions. "It's your culture, and not my place to tell you what to do with it."

Jaster snorted. _"Mirdala jetii." 5 _

The traitor was already very dead from his fall, and the Mandalorian was grimly satisfied about it. "Alright, Ashla. You're here, and you're helping me. My _verde_ are back that way--" they nodded to the tree-covered hills behind them-- "and once this ambush is routed, we can see about whatever it is _you_ want. But you'll have to wait."

"I can do that." She arched an eyebrow at them. "Do you want me to help you back there?"

"There's no shame in needing help when you're injured," Jaster said with a pained laugh, not bothering to let go of her shoulders. 

By the time they had made their way over the rise, the sound of blaster fire was petering out. Jaster let go of Ahsoka and leaned forward against a tree. _"Jango! Rejorhaa'i!" 6 _

Ahsoka tried hard not to twitch as one of the soldiers replied in fast Mando'a. It was possible this was some other Jango. It wasn't _that_ rare a name. 

Then again… she'd been looking for a way to change things. How much of her young life, and the development of the Republic into an Empire, had been affected by the instability of Mandalore and the actions of Death Watch?

Perched on a branch overhead, the convor trilled.

**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a:  
> 1\. "That's what you get, you soulless coward. Where's Vizsla?" (back)  
> 2\. "Over there." (back)  
> 3\. "I'm finishing this." (back)  
> 4\. "What's your name?" (back)  
> 5\. "Smart Jedi." (back)  
> 6\. " Jango! Report!" (back)  
> 


End file.
